Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

People have been getting very impatient for the the “Cupcake” build of Android, but finally it appears to be arriving.

According to Engadget T-Mobile may have started distributing Android 1.5 as an over-the-air update to G1 owners, which would bring customizable widgets, messaging enhancements, virtual keyboards, and UI tweaks (among many other goodies).

Andy Rubin, Director of Mobile Platforms at Google, has recently helped demo Flash on the G1 at Adobe's MAX event. There is no news on when flash will be released for Android / G1 however this is quite a big one up over Nokia (Symbian S60) and Apple as neither of these companies have flash running on their phones.

Phones Review have posted 2 links to You Tube video reviews comparing the iPhone and G1.

The reviewer is quite thorough and basically shows you many features of each phone and compares the two together to see what one is better.

Personally I am not a huge Apple fan so I am a bit biased against the iPhone, however you can't deny it is a good phone. I feel that the G1 has more flaws than the 3G iPhone however this is the first incarnation of the phone, and if we look at the first iPhone that had even more flaws, especially the lack of 3G!!!

I think Android/G1 is more of a grower and not a shower at the moment. I do have complete confidence that Android will become the best Smartphone OS out there it just requires a hardware manufacturer to release something to make the most of the OS. It also means that Android could potentially have hundreds of different hardware options at any one time. This is where the iPhone is let down, there is only 1 company releasing hardware for it so the phone will always have people that don't like something about it.

Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators in Baltimore has informed the New York Times that he was able to install a keystroke logging application by redirecting the G1's web browser to a malicious web site that automatically installed the software.

Google has acknowledged the security flaw and points out that the sandbox-nature of Android limits the damage to a single application. Unlike other smart-phones and PCs, this security flaw only affects the web browser and will not compromise any other portions of the phone. Google has already patched the open-source version of Android and is currently working with T-Mobile and HTC to get the security patch out to current T-Mobile customers.

I am due for an upgrade in January, and as always I find myself in a quandary about what to get. There does not seem to be a phone out there that meets my requirements, a lot of phones tick the right boxes but then will miss one or 2 important things off, leaving me with an option I am not entirely happy about.

I suppose the problem is that I want all the bells and whistles and not have to pay a fortune for it, and if a company released the "perfect phone" it would mean people wouldn't bother changing it so would harm the profits.

Anyway what I want from my phone is:

Large internal memory - The iPhone, N96, and Omnia all offer this. I would want 8GB minimum or 16GB would be nice

MicroSD - If I had 16GB internal and a 16GB card I would have plenty of room to play with! I believe the N96 and Omnia do this while also having the internal memory.

Smart OS - I'm a geek, I like functionality, and a smart OS is the best way to get it. Though one issue is that I don't want Windows Mobile. I will try it again if I HAVE to but my experience with my HTC Tytn was not pleasant. Symbian is the most likely option, though I strongly suspect Android will become a strong contender if not the main contender eventually.

3.5G (HSDA) - Thanks to reduced mobile broadband prices and decent mobile browser I find myself using my phone for browsing a lot more. I am sorry Apple but 3G is just not acceptable.

A decent camera with a xenon flash. I don't need a stupid million megapixel camera but 4 or 5 megapixel would be nice, and an LED flash is just CRAP. I believe it is the image sensor that is more important for a digital camera so I would prefer a decent one of them rather than lots of megapixels.

Large touch screen + decent screen resolution - The iPhone may fall down in quite a few areas but you can't fault its screen or the touch screen user interface! If I am going to use my phone online, it makes life a lot easier if you the screen can display a good % of a normal web page, obviously I am not going to get 1280x800 but as much width as possible would be good.

Pull out keyboard - Ok this maybe a little more disputed by people than other features, and I have to admit the iPhone does the best of a bad situation but I still think real keys are important.

Exchange Functionality - Again probably not the most important feature for the average consumer but it is important and quite a lot of phones (iPhone, S60 phones) do it so there is no excuse not too. Blackberry functionality would be helpful (not so much for me though) and decent push email.

Proper media keys / media integration - At the end of the day I am looking for convergence, I don't want 16GB of storage for nothing, I want to play my music on the phone, so I want to access the music easily! I also want it to be able to play the files I put on it, rather than having to convert them via some software.

A 3.5mm headphone jack - Again I want to listen to music, using adaptors is just annoying and proprietary adapters are the most ridiculous thing in the world! i.e the G1 apparently needs a custom ExtUSB adaptor that isn't even available immediately! What are they playing at!

Mini USB charging and PC connection - Again I hate all things proprietary. My E90 even has a mini USB but then wont charge up via it!!

Built in GPS - Not that I use it much, but it is very useful for a lot of people.

Wi-Fi + Bluetooth - Self explanatory really

A decent batter life would also be nice, oh and actually the ability to make calls!

I don't think form factor is that much of an issue, the iPhone is hardly small, nor is the G1, and the N96 is quite fat. Though the iPhone goes to show that people will happily have a large phone as long as it looks good!

I suppose that is quite a lot of phone, and looking at it, it sort of kills off the Music player AND the sat nav market but phones are moving this way anyway but I just wished they hurried up a little!

At the moment I think the Nokia N96 or Samsung Innov8 are the closest to my requirements, though the Samsung Innov8 doesn't appear to be freely available on contract.

What other features do you want to see on a phone? And I mean realistic features, I am sure I have missed a few off

One of my main problems with the G1 is the lack of MS Exchange functionality. I had it on my TyTn and I have it on my Nokia E90, and I love it.

Boy Genius Report has posted that 2 companies Wrike and Intermedia have developed a basic application called ContactSync which will provide contacting synching between the G1 and Exchange.

At the moment things are pretty basic, the application only pulls your contacts from Exchange, there is no 2 way synching or anything fancy at all really. However it is good to see that there is active development for this. Once the G1 is publicly available and people have had a few months to play around with it I can image a more functional application will be completed.

One very good point made in the comments of Boy Genius Report is

I know that Android is still too new and has not proven itself as a top notch OS but what gets everyone so excited is that it has promise. Here is a perfect example of the power android has being an open OS. The phone isn’t even out in stores yet and developer are working hard on creating apps for it. This solution is still far from being perfect, but how long did it take the iPhone to get any type of exchange support.

Some videos and pictures of the new T-Mobile G1.

Hands on pictures from Engadget

Google Android walkthrough on the G1

There has been quite a bit of talk recently about the release of the new G1 phone by HTC using Google's Android.

Android is a open source smart operating system for mobile phones and is developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google.

The G1 which is the first phone to be released using Android will be available in the UK in early November and the rest of Europe 2009. The handset will be exclusive to T-Mobile (they are a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance) and will be free on price plans from £40 a month (no news on pays as you go), which will make it competitive with the iPhone on pricing, which is “free” for a £45 a month tariff from O2. You can pre-register with T-Mobile here www.t-mobile.co.uk/tmobileg1.

In the US the G1 Phone will be $179 - very cheap for a smart phone - and will be launched on October 22.

T-Mobile are touting the G1 to have a “Superior user experience” and they predict their Web 'n' Walk will get a 250% increase in Internet traffic.

The G1 has a touch-screen interface and a Sidekick-like keyboard, which will really set it apart from the iPhone.

With video you can swipe, frame and crop a photo to the homescreen. Street view and Google maps look great. Compass (GPS) mode moves as you move. Comes with Google Talk, Google Maps with directions and traffic view, street view with landmarks. Facebook looks good in the Webkit browser. The Music player has advanced features. The Android Market will be an app store for games and apps. It has a dedicated search button on keyboard, which competition authorities might take a good look at.

Unfortunately it does have some major downsides (for me at least!). There is no Exchange functionality (even the iPhone has this!), it can not be used as a tethered modem, and there is no 3.5mm headphone jack.

Exchange is a big one for myself as I use my phone for business and I like to synch everything, there is the opportunity for third party developers to build for this.

Engladget have confirmed that the G1 will use a proprietary ExtUSB connector, meaning you'll need custom headphones or an adapter to plug in your own, AND the adapter wont be available immediately at launch!

I have been quite excited by Android, and I love HTC (I just hate Windows Mobile) but I think this phone may some key features missing that will stop me buying it. I am confident we will see some brilliant phones using Android, and once more 3rd party applications are available this phone could very well be more appealing.